Lovely Lijaing and Waiting Around in Kunming

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After lunch following our trek of the Tiger Leaping Gorge, we boarded a private mini bus and headed 2 hours south to Lijiang. The bus journey was pretty uneventful and upon arriving in Lijiang we followed the Sarah and Callum the aussies to the hostel they were booked in. Panba Guesthouse, 120yn for a massive double room and ensuite, it was lush but reminded us we were back on the tourist trail, where were our 60yn rooms???? Unfortunately it chucked it down when we arrived and pretty much stayed that way the entire time we were there. Lijiang however is gorgeous even in awful weather. The old town where we stayed is a maze of cobbled streets, rickety old wooden houses and clear water canals everywhere with fish in them!!!! Apparently, the canals were once the city’s drinking water supply. They really give the town its charm. It has a typical town square where on the evenings a bonfire is set fire and people dance around it like they did back in Shangri La. This town was once full of Naxi traders but has now been took over by souvenir stalls and Chinese tour groups.

We stayed here for 3 nights relaxing and pottering around the old town trying to avoid the crowds of Chinese tourists. It was again my turn to have my photo taken with more than one family! We discovered the local market which was fab, full of fresh produce even fish flapping about in tubs of water.

After over a month of drinking beer we were both craving for some vino so for more money than our room costs us - 180yn we purchased some Sicilian Red Vino from an Irish run bar called Stone the Crows. It was worth every yuan and went down a treat.

Something we keep forgetting to mention about China is the trousers the kids wear. From what looks like the moment the babies are on solids, nappies are no longer used and out comes these trousers with slits in the crotch. When the kids need a pee or a poo the parents hold then up in a squatting position and the child pees or poos. This is done wherever the parent holds them this maybe anywhere, for example in the street or even in a bin in the corner of a shop!!!!! We couldn’t believe how young the kids are when they get potty trained, maybe something we should try to learn in the western world to save on all the nappies we go through, it is such an odd sight to see. Only in China!!!!

So after 3 nights in Lijiang it was time to head further south to Kunming. We had booked ourselves on a sleeper bus 184yn each. Well, what can we say about the sleeper bus!!!! This was something we weren’t expecting. Imagine a national express bus with all the seats ripped out and then 3 rows of about 2.5 foot wide bunk beds put in . We had top bunks, T was behind the driver and G had the smallest bed ever with a pillar in the middle halving the width of her bed. Her feet were under T’s head as his bed was raised from the middle up. All in all these buses/beds were not designed for your average westerner!!!!! We would have preferred sitting in recliners where we wouldn’t have been fearful for our lives every time the bus went round a corner!!!! All we can say was; worst nights sleep ever!!!!

So after the worst nights sleep ever, we arrived in Kunming at 5am not the 8am we were told. At first we didn’t believe we were even at our final destination, as it was 3 hours earlier than our stated arrival time. But the bus driver just stood outside waiting for people to wake up and get their luggage. We eventually used our heads and matched up the Chinese symbols on our tickets to the ones on the bus station wall and decided we had arrived. After about an hour of waiting around we decided we couldn’t wait any longer and got a taxi to our hostel. We weren’t sure the hostel would be open at such a stupidly early time and thought it better to wait at the bus station than on some street in a random place. Thankfully our hostel was open and they had a room ready for us. We were staying at The Hump Hostel, 120yn for a double room en-suite and it was lovely, the hostel had a roof top bar/restaurant which pleased T no end.

The first thing we did was crawl into bed to catch up on our lack of sleep before getting up and headed to the Vietnam Consulate to get our visas for country number 13. This was really the only reason why we came to Kunming as there isn’t really much else to see around here. In view of this we didn’t really do anything, we found a great bar/restaurant called Salvador’s by the university and pretty much enjoyed our time there or at the hostel. T was brave one day and got his hair cut by a young lass who spoke no English and hand signed to Tony to point out in a Chinese magazine what hairdo he wanted, bearing in mind the Chinese lads wear their hair longer than tony and more side combed ha ha ha. She then tried to cut off his sideburn’s.

We also met an amazing guy in our hostel who had cycled all the way here from England, it had took him 6 months, we couldn’t believe it, he had so many awesome stories, but it still didn’t inspire us to do any more cycling than just hiring bikes for a few hours!!!! Although his budget was much less than ours!!!!

So again after 3 nights in Kunming generally doing nothing but eating and drinking we headed to the train station to head West to Guilin. Not giving ourselves enough time to allow for the rush hour traffic, we ended up having to run with all our bags about 300m down a very busy road before boarding our train with minuets to spare!!!!!

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